In a rather one-sided match of the Micromax Cup tri-series, India registered a massive 105 run over New Zealand at Dambulla. With this victory, India ensured a spot for themselves in the final.
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. India had a disappointing start. Opener Dinesh Karthik continued his poor form and went back to pavilion without scoring. Wickets kept falling at regular interval and at one stage, India were 66/4.
But Virender Sehwag played a superb inning of 110 runs as he single-handed took his team to a respectable total. Sehwag took his time to settle down at the crease and understand the batting condition, but once settled, he tore New Zealand bowling apart. He continued to play massive shots while his teammates struggled at the other end. 
Sehwag had a partnership of 107 runs with Dhoni for fifth wicket. Dhoni realised the importance of his wicket and kept rotating the strike as Sehwag added more runs to the Indian total. New Zealand found it still more difficult to curb the attack by Sehwag as two of their key bowlers Jacob Oram and Daryl Tuffey were out of action due to injury. But soon after completing his century Sehwag got out on a delivery by Nathan McCullum.
The lower order batsmen could not contribute much to the their team’s total and India were all out at score of 223 runs. New Zealand had a challenging task of batting under the lights and chasing a total that was equivalent to 300 runs on other grounds.
Indian bowlers managed to make an early breakthrough. Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra did not allow the New Zealand batsmen to settle down as they kept picking wickets at regular intervals. Indian bowlers looked much confident than before and left no room for error. KD Mills was the only New Zealand batsman who could score 52 runs as rest of the team collapsed under the Indian bowling attack. Praveen Kumar grabbed three wickets while Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel got two and three wickets respectively.
With this win India managed to avenge their 200-run defeat against New Zealand in the previous encounter. Sehwag was awarded man of the match as he led his team’s victory stage. As India will take on Sri Lanka in final on 28th, it remains to be seen if Sehwag’s magic will work yet again for India or not.